These are the mechanics of the new Prowess based character progression system that we’re patching in today in the beta build of Darkfall Unholy Wars, and wiping at the same time since the way characters progress has drastically changed. Here’s some information on this new mechanic which was also one of the tester suggestions during beta:

Gaining Prowess
Prowess can be gained from all meaningful interactions with the game. From harvesting and crafting, to killing monsters and PvP activities, everything you do will reward you with Prowess Points. The amount of points that you gain will depend on the difficulty or rarity of your achievements. High ranking monsters will offer more points than low ranking ones and crafting high-end items vs. low-end ones, for example, will work the same way.

All characters have a current and total Prowess point number which is displayed at the top right of the GUI, both in Action and GUI mode. The higher the total is, the harder it becomes for players to accumulate Prowess and the more effort they have to put into it to gain the points they need.

Feats are also a great source of Prowess as they reward the players with extra points for completing various tasks. Feat rewards stay the same regardless of how many Prowess Points the player has acquired.

Party Prowess Points
All players in a party will share Prowess point gains. Half of the points will be awarded to the player who performed the action, the rest will be equally divided between party members who are in range.

Raising Attributes
Attributes are very important in Darkfall Unholy Wars. They affect, among other things, the level of a character’s effectiveness in all skills as well as the pool’s size. Attribute boosters can make a big difference early on in a character’s life. Attributes can be raised in the paperdoll window by clicking on the "up" arrow next to the attribute of your choice. Doing so will display an interface window allowing you to allocate points to your skill, check the total cost, and finalize your allocation. You can raise attributes one point at a time with diminishing returns. Attribute point cost increases for each additional point but also for each additional attribute you want to increase. For example, raising your first attribute to 50 will cost considerably less than raising your fourth one to the same number.
Boosters can be purchased through the Role window. They can be purchased in bundles of 10 for a total of +40 on each attribute.

Raising Skills
Skills can also be raised per point and each skill level will cost more than the previous one. Raising more skills will cost more depending number of Skills you have already raised, the same way it works for attributes. You can raise your skills by clicking the "up" arrow below each skill icon in the skills window. The interface is similar to the one used for attributes and operates the same way. What each skill level affects will be explained in the interface as it varies from skill to skill. However, and especially for role skills, skill level mainly affects radius, the pool costs, and cool-downs. For these skills, pool costs and cool-downs bonuses apply only for the Primary School. In contrast, radius bonuses always apply.

Crafting Skills
Due to the effect crafting skills have on the economy we felt we should exclude them from the Prowess based system. All crafting skills can be raised by creating items. It works the same way for the new Salvaging skill. Harvesting skills however are based on the new Prowess system.

Thank you for reading. You may find the write-up of the new Salvaging system an interesting read as well.